Nic Adler remembers a time when the only plant-based festival in town was the one that ultimately came to be known as Eat Drink Vegan.

With so many festivals now taking place on any given weekend, Adler – festival director for event and concert promoter Goldenvoice and co-owner of the vegan eateries Monty’s Good Burger and the soon-to-open Nic’s – has decided to pull the plug on Eat Drink Vegan after a decade. The festival takes place Saturday, June 22, at the Brookside Golf Course on the grounds of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Eat Drink Vegan, which brings together a curated selection of more than 100 restaurants and food vendors, more than 250 vegan beverages, a culinary stage, CBD village and a marketplace for everything from clothing to beauty products, got its start in 2009. Originally called the Vegan Beer and Food Festival, it unfolded in the parking lot of Adler’s club, the Roxy, with a dozen breweries, two food trucks and about 300 people.

Nic Adler, festival director at Goldenvoice, announced that the June 22 Eat Drink Vegan festival would be the last. (Courtesy of Goldenvoice)

Eat Drink Vegan features more than 100 curated restaurants and vendors, unlimited pours of more than 250 beverages, a culinary stage, CBD village and a plant-based marketplace. (Courtesy of Goldenvoice)

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Eat Drink Vegan’s returns June 22 and will include more than 250 beverages, such as beer and cider, kombucha, wine and more. (Courtesy of Goldenvoice)

Eat Drink Vegan’s June 22 event will include more than 250 beverages, such as beer and cider, kombucha, wine and more. (Courtesy of Goldenvoice)

“Today as I look out and see 10,000 people, I don’t know if I ever felt better than that first festival,” said Adler, whose other Rose Bowl festivals include Pasadena Daydream Festival with the Cure on Aug. 31 and Arroyo Seco Weekend (which isn’t happening this year, but he said it will be back in 2020).

As he put it, “We crushed it!”

That first event was founded simply for people – vegans and vegan-curious – to get together over plant-based food and drinks.

“There are so many things in your food that you don’t ever question, and a lot of them happen to be an animal protein or byproducts from that industry,” said Adler, who went vegan 24 years ago and added, “I’ve never felt better. But I didn’t want to be preaching to anyone. I wanted to create environments where people could drink beer and take something away from it.”

The burger joint Monty’s that he co-founded in 2018 with Bill Fold, Coachella’s director who handles concert operations, draws long lines in Koreatown.

“There’s nothing that says more about the change that society is going through than that,” said Adler, who has another location in the Food Lab in Riverside.

Nic’s, which is slated to open in mid-June at 8265 Beverly Blvd., continues the shift toward normalcy by playing off the last 30 years of L.A.’s restaurant scene with its chef-driven menu that includes house-made pasta dishes, grain bowls, salads and lava cake.

While he plans to spend more time in the restaurant world, Adler said he isn’t completely doing away with the Eat Drink Vegan concept.

“I think what’s important for people to know is that this is the last year of Eat Drink Vegan as they currently know it,” he said. “And you know what? There’s a ton of great events out there. I don’t think they’re at the level of Eat Drink Vegan, which makes me think that we might need to figure out what the next iteration of the next Eat Drink Vegan is.”

Los Angeles Daily News reporter Sandra Barrera has been writing about entertainment and lifestyle topics since 1998. Before joining the Daily News in 2000, she was a reporter for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario where she helped launch the now-defunct entertainment magazine 72HOURS as its music writer. Her reporting career at the Daily News has included fashion coverage from the red carpet at Hollywood's biggest awards shows, home and garden trends with a particular focus on earth-friendly alternatives and a wide range of events, from theater to the latest happenings at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

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